THU—MON, MAR 19—23, 2015 ▪ ROXIE THEATER
Presented by Mid-Century Productions and I Wake Up Dreaming

SATURDAY MATINEE, MAR 21 JAPON NEGRO

UNDERWORLD BEAUTY / ANKOKUGAI NO BIJO  1:00

Dir. Seijun Suzuki (1958) 87 min.

Next stop, Japan, where a timeline chart analogous to the one provided in "The French Had A Name For It" would repay our close attention. Instead, we will immerse you in three sterling examples of Japon Negro that highlight the collision of existential suffering and the "code of revenge" so prevalent in the Japanese version of noir.

Though UNDERWORLD BEAUTY trades on the considerable feminine charms of Mari Shiraki, it is primarily a yakuza revenge film centered around the shifting location of stolen diamonds. Director Seijun Suzuki, who would soon graduate to singularly baroque, cartoon-like, high-contrast color extravaganzas, shows that he can play it (relatively) straight, capturing the grit of Tokyo locations while leaving room for interior scenes that implode into violence directly from the inner agony of its characters.

INTIMIDATION / ARU KYÔHAKU  2:45

Dir. Koreyoshi Kurahara (1960) 65 min.

Will INTIMIDATION make the noir aficionado forget RIFIFI? Of course not, but its hair-raising robbery sequence just might give the viewer an unprecedented jolt. A "chamber noir" where class, greed and blackmail are juggled like chainsaws, INTIMIDATION eschews epic handwringing about "sympathetic criminals" and dissects class society with a knife so sharp that the entry wound remains undetectable even as the blood begins to flow. Director Koreyoshi Kurahara, like Seijun Suzuki an alumnus of Nikkatsu Studios, gives us Japan's perfect answer to American B-noir.

PALE FLOWER / KAWAITA HANA  4:15

Dir. Masahiro Shinoda (1964) 96 min.

You'll need to brace yourself, however, for the over-the-edge tone and barely suppressed sexual hysteria pervading Masahiro Shinoda's perfectly perverse PALE FLOWER. Thanks to the icy chemistry between Ryo Ikebe (as the yakuza hitman released from prison just as a criminal turf war is heating up) and Mariko Kaga (as the slumming "pale flower" with a meta-addictive attraction to thrill-seeking), the viewer is transported headlong into a Tokyo underworld reeking of Baudelairean fleurs du mal. No other noir on any continent uses two aging crime boss rivals for caustic, comic commentary, while all the while those they command are edging ever closer to death by either gunplay or lethal ingestion.

Is this the greatest Japon Negro of all? Judge for yourself…

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